A LexisNexis Blog

Blank Checks Across the Globe

Back in August , we wrote a post about IPOs by special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), noting that there had been, at that time, seven such registrations so far in 2010. Given that there were only three in all of 2009, we wondered aloud whether offerings by blank check companies were on the rise again.

Photo by Adrian van Leen. Some right reserved.

Since that post, there have been three more SPAC IPO filings, bringing the year’s total to a respectable ten. Interestingly, though, all three have been by companies based outside the United States. The most recent came this morning, in the form of an F-1 filed by Australian Acquisition Corp., based in Melbourne.

Australian Acquisition Corp.’s offering is the first IPO registration ever presented to the American market by a blank check company from Australia. (It is not, however, the only Australian SPAC filing with the SEC. Roman Acquisition Corp., now known as Fire From Ice, Inc., filed a Form 10 registration in 2007 with the intent to go public through a reverse merger. It is still seeking a target company.)